Listening to the Minority Voice
It's not secret that I listen to NPR. During the latest local NPR pledge drive, the local announcers decided to spend several minutes one day talking about how public radio is different from regular radio in that it is primarily listener supported (though NPR gets it's fair share of corporate support too) and because it does, NPR is more concerned with what listeners want to hear than what radio (supported from advertising alone) or television or cable news shows is able to deliver. Therefore, in theory, you should hear the kinds of news and programs that are different from the regular news outlets.
And in practice this is relatively true.
For example, this morning as I drove into school-slash-work I listened to a report on Mayday protests that take place (annually) in Los Angeles. Last year the protest turned violent as protestors threw rocks and bottles at the police and the police responded by clearing the park with batons and rubber bullets. No one was safe. Not even the press. The audio for the report consisted of a female voice, non-native English speaker, repeating, "You can't do that! You can't do that!"
The reason behind the Mayday protest is to bring to light the needs, desires, and plights of immigrants to the United States. Because this is L.A., many of these immigrants are going to be illegals who crossed over and are trying to find work in the United States, in part, because the kinds of jobs they would've worked in Mexico no longer exist.
NPR, the other week, also reported that NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) changed the way in which agriculture works in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In the United States, we subsidize the agriculture industry. As a result, you make more as a farmer in this country than can be made working in Canada or Mexico. Because of government subsidies in the U.S. the agriculture industry in Mexico has all but died because farmers in Mexico cannot afford to compete with the people in the United States.
One of the principle issues that remain on the national radar is what to do about illegal immigrants. Under G.W., we have opened many and varied ways for illegal's to become legal. In short, many people are made citizens simply because they don't get caught and its easier to change the numbers by making those who break the law into a group that is legal. This group has also become the laborers the fast food workers and the people who are willing to do everything that educated white American's are not willing to do.
NAFTA is an agreement that allows for non-tariff trade between these three countries. G.W. has tried to influence economic policy by opening free trade with other countries both in Central and South America. Recently, a proposed treaty agreement with Colombia was rejected by the Senate (the body that has to ratify the agreement). NAFTA is one of the direct causes of an increase in illegal immigrants into this country.
The "therefore" to this is that in order to curb illegal immigration and worker protests and police violence is to repeal NAFTA. However, as this is politics, NAFTA and the agreements between countries is more complex than simply repealing the treaty agreement between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.
Repealing NAFTA, though a nifty idea, is not a practical idea. Granted, many aspects of the treaty were negated by 9/11. We don't get to cross borders without a valid passport or birth certificate, we don't have open access to the other countries, and life is not easier, money more plentiful, and life better as a result. And yet, we grow more and more accustomed to NAFTA and as a result, we are averse to change.
The UN (United Nations) is another fiasco that we are so deeply entrenched in that we are not likely to get out of it. We host the main complex. We pay for the majority of the organization. Our armed forces comprise most of all UN peacekeeping forces. And in the end, we are merely a part of a larger body with a permanent seat on the Security Council. Our leaving the UN would eliminate our voice in international trade and politics; but without the involvement of the U.S. in the UN, the UN would cease to exist - over time.
Truth told, NPR is really an organization to share the minority voice. Mayday protests are primarily interesting to people who want to know about minority groups and groups that normally don't have a voice. There is a reason why NPR is considered to be more left than right, and certainly left of center on most subjects; they illustrate the plight of the working class, the poor, and the afflicted. As a result, the bleeding heart liberal is more likely (in my opinion) to enjoy most of NPR's programming than, say, the died in the wool conservative.
What NPR does do is share stories that have a hard human-interest angle to them. Like many other news outlets, they are a form of entertainment. If you want to know how the Housing Crisis is affecting (allegedly) average Americans, then you will not be disappointed. NPR will share information with you complete with audio on how people were duped, how they didn't think variable interest rates would hurt them, and how they only want to know they will have a place to live.
NPR also helps people realize that the working poor are hit the hardest in a crunch like we are seeing from increases in food prices to increases in prices at the pump to increases in travel costs and more. One of the conceits that NPR uses is to find someone who is loquacious and well spoken who can paint a verbal picture of the situation. Listening to the commentators, one would think that we are in a far worse situation now than we've ever been in before.
Or, if you want to hear about the Iraq conflict (yes, we are fighting a war, no, we have not declared it... thanks G.W.) then they have reporters on the ground who will speak to the military and to Iraqi's who are more than willing to share the perceived atrocities. And things continue to move forward.
Moving back to the Mayday protests, the thing that catches my ear more than anything else is that NPR shares aspects of the report made by the police commission investigating the force used to remove protestors; but NPR found and recorded and shared the people's voices who were alleged victims of the police brutality, the voices that claimed they didn't hear the order to leave, the same kinds of voices that rose up after Rodney King and claimed that police brutality is worse than it probably is.
Perception is everything. NPR creates a perception that everyone who at a specific level of economic income is being abused, that they are tormented, and that life is too difficult. More, NPR creates an illusion that what these people have to say, "Individual officers have to be held accountable," is truth, it is relevant, and it matters.
There are positive reasons to access multiple areas of news gathering. I enjoy NPR as an entertainment medium and as a source for some news. And yet, I find myself switching stations when all I hear is the minority voice.
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